26 November 2014

Not being a huge fan of either FPS games or online multiplayer games, I wasn't initially particularly interested in Bungie's new game, Destiny. But after recently getting a PS4 and watching the game streamed by members of LoadingReadyRun (who have previously inspired me to try several other games, like Dark Souls, that I've quite enjoyed), I figured I might as well give it a shot and bought a second hand copy. I ended up playing a not insignificant amount of hours of it over the last week or so.

Destiny was initially released to somewhat mixed reviews, but I think this was largely due to the fact that it had generated a lot of hype before its release. So it might not have been quite as ground-breaking as some might have hoped, but that doesn't mean it's necessarily a bad game. I've heard more than one person I respect comment that the criticisms the game received can't really be argued with, but it's still a fun game to play. As I write this, I've finished playing through the game's main story missions, but there are still aspects, namely the game's multiplayer elements, that I haven't tried. I may return to those in a future post, if I ever get around to playing them...

So what exactly is Destiny? It's actually a little hard to sum up in just a few words. Destiny is a sci-fi first person shooter with RPG elements. It's set in a distant, apocalyptic future. A long time ago, a vast alien entity known as the Traveler came to earth, bringing about an era of prosperity across the solar system. But eventually the Traveler's old enemy, a mysterious force known only as the Darkness, came and caused society to collapse. Humanity's last survivors now live in a single city on Earth, while the rest of the solar system is overrun by hostile aliens. You play as a Guardian, a warrior brought back from the dead by the Traveler's power, who must venture out into the world to fight these alien invaders...

While the game was obviously designed with multiplayer in mind, there is plenty to do on your own as well. A series of story missions introduces you to the game's locations and enemy factions. The story's not exactly very deep or complex, but that's fine. Destiny is clearly more about gameplay than it is about narrative, and I think its storytelling went well with the game's style and pace. Graham Stark of LoadingReadyRun once commented while streaming the game that it's not so much a game with story as it is a game with lore. And the setting is, indeed, pretty cool.

Which brings me to one of the game's features that caused some controversy. As you play, you unlock 'Grimoire Cards', little snippets of lore concerning many aspects of the game and its setting. However, you can't read these in the game, only by logging into Bungie's website or using the game's official mobile phone app. The possibility to read this background information online or on my phone, in and of itself, is a pretty neat idea, I think. But not being able to access it through the game doesn't really make any sense. It's not like we're talking about a huge amount of data...

But let's get on to the game itself! Destiny controls much like any FPS. The action is fairly fast and fluid, and pretty fun. There's a significant RPG element to the game as well, though. You pick one of three classes and three races. The latter choice is only cosmetic, but each class has slightly different abilities. As you play you level up and gain more abilities, and find or buy better gear. Loot is important, and items come in a range of different rarities. Once you hit level 20 you can only increase your level by acquiring better gear, up to an overall maximum of 30.

The game has four major areas (Earth, Moon, Venus and Mars), each of which features a fairly large, open public area and locations for several missions. Multiplayer is woven through the entire game. Each mission will usually see you travelling through a public area populated by other players as well, to the actual mission area, where you'll be alone—or with your 'fire team', if you're playing co-op—not unlike an instance dungeon in a MMORPG. Or you can patrol the public areas doing little side-quests and bounties and participating in random 'public events' that will have you engage a particular enemy or defend a location with any players that are around... Destiny's not really a MMO game, however, since you'll only ever be in a level with a handful of randomly selected other players.

Like I said, there's plenty to do on your own as well. Playing through the story missions, maybe doing a few patrols and bounties on the side, should get you close to level 20. According to the stats in the phone app I've spent some 16 hours doing just this (although I'm not entirely sure if this includes everything or just time spent in missions). Which is already a decent amount of content for an action game.

If you're interested in multiplayer, there are additional missions, called 'strikes', intended primarily for three player teams (and of course you can play any of the regular story missions and patrols with a team as well), as well as a lengthier 'raid' for a six player team. (More strikes and raids are to be added in DLCs, I believe.) And of course there are PvP modes as well—a fairly decent variety of content, all in all, catering to different tastes. (It should be noted that multiplayer content is not cross-platform, as far as I know.)

Destiny looks and sounds pretty good, in my opinion. The soundtrack has a lot of variety, ranging from epic orchestrals to fast electronic segments, all of which fit the game pretty well. (And I recently learned Paul McCartney himself worked on some of the tracks, which is pretty interesting.) I'm not the best at evaluating the graphics of modern games—I don't feel like Destiny is especially ground-breaking in that department, but I certainly had no complaints. Performance (on PS4) was always pretty smooth. The only technical complaint I had was that, because of the online elements, Internet connection hiccups might cause the game to kick you out, making you restart at the last checkpoint. This happened to me a few times, but overall it's a relatively minor annoyance.

Admittedly I haven't played a ton of FPS games, but, honestly, I think I had more fun playing through Destiny's story missions than I've had with any FPS since, well, Doom (though of course the RPG elements and level structure make it pretty different from most typical FPS games). It may not be the deepest gaming experience I've ever had, but it's a fun game with a cool setting. What more would I want?

With its multiplayer elements it's a game one could theoretically keep playing indefinitely, although the number of missions is somewhat limited and I imagine they could get pretty repetitive after a while... Like I said, I haven't really tried the multiplayer at all yet. I honestly don't know at this point if I will. This tends to be the point in many games when I lose interest and move on to new things... We'll just have to see whether Destiny repeats this pattern—though even if it does, I feel I've gotten my money's worth from the game already.

14 November 2014

So I finally got myself a PS4! I say 'finally', although honestly a year after release isn't that long for me, quite possibly the earliest I've ever gotten a new console. But I knew I would have to get one eventually, so here we are...

So, brand new console out of the box and hooked up, but no actual games in my shelf yet, I turned to the PSN store to look for a cheap game to try. Child of Light caught my eye. I've been meaning to try it out for a while. It's available for PS3 as well, but obviously I was going to play it on PS4 now that I had one (buying it on PSN actually gives you access to both versions). Of course I can't say if there's any difference in appearance between the two, since I've only played it on PS4.

Child of Light was developed by Ubisoft Montreal, but it's not a typical large western studio production. It's a cute (some could even say twee) fairy tale game that combines features typical of indie sidescrollers and Japanese RPGs.

Aurora is a girl from 19th century Austria, who due to an illness succumbs to a deathlike sleep. However, she awakes in a magical land called Lemuria, where a dark queen has stolen the stars, moon and sun. Naturally it's Aurora's destiny to fight the queen and save the land from eternal night... The story's hardly very deep or original, but it goes very well with the style of the game. The characters are all fun as well. Most of the dialogue in the game is written in rhyming verse. Honestly, it's often a little awkward and could have been improved with just a little effort, but I still think it's quite charming.

Aesthetically the game is quite pretty. It has a 2D hand-drawn look that goes very well with the game's themes. The music, composed by Canadian musician Béatrice Martin (aka Cœur de pirate), is quite good as well.

The 'overworld' part of the game plays much like a 2D platformer (although quite early on you gain the ability to fly, so it's not really about 'platforming'). There are some puzzle elements, many involving your 'firefly' companion that can be controlled with the right stick (or the PS4 controller's touchpad), who can interact with various objects.

Coming into contact with an enemy triggers a turn based battle sequence, much like typical JRPG battles, although there are original twists as well. Timing plays a crucial role in combat. Time advances between actions, and you can follow characters' progress on a graph at the bottom of the screen. Different actions take a different amount of time to complete, and if you hit an enemy (or you yourself get hit) in this 'casting' phase, the action is interrupted. The firefly companion is used in combat as well. It can slow down enemies, heal allies etc.

Over the course of the game you'll acquire several allies. Only two characters can be in combat simultaneously, but you can switch characters at any time. The characters all have unique abilities, of course, that develop as you gain experience. There's no equipment management per se, but you'll find gems that you can equip for additional bonuses.

The game has two difficulty modes, 'casual' and 'expert'. I went with 'casual' for my first playthrough, looking for a primarily relaxing experience, and the game was mostly pretty easy. (I only died once, and that was due to environmental hazards rather than combat, and I very rarely had to use any of the many healing items I picked up.) However, even on this easy setting, I felt the battle system encouraged me to think about what I was doing, which is naturally good.

The game wasn't very long (at least by RPG standards). I played through it over the course of a few days. (Alas, no in-game timer, as far as I could see. Seriously, game devs, it can't be that hard to include one!) Then again, it's not very expensive either. And I may want to replay it in 'expert' mode some day, too...

Ubisoft isn't one of my favourite game publishers due to their attitudes toward DRM and recent debacles concerning diversity, buggy game launches etc. The game bugs you to register with their entirely unnecessary Uplay platform. Thankfully it's optional, though. The reminder when starting the game is only a minor annoyance. Still, it was one of the few things that really bothered me about this game.

So yeah, in summation, Child of Light is a very pretty, unique RPG with a fairy tale feel, and an interesting, well balanced battle system. The cute look and themes obviously may not be for everybody, but fans of fantasy RPGs might get a kick out of this game. I know I enjoyed it myself.